Mackay MP Julieanne Gilbert slams LNP’s Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro stance

With a fierce, organised local opposition to the Pioneer-Burdekin hydro project, are there more votes in pumping it up or flushing it down? One sitting MP is about to find out.

Labor MP Julieanne Gilbert has skirted around answering whether backing the Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro scheme could cost her the Mackay seat.

The regional seat has for more than a century been a Labor stronghold with Mrs Gilbert only the fifth person to be elected in Mackay when she came into power in 2015.

But toeing the Labor party line in the weeks ahead to the October state election could become a death knell to her political career as residents in the Mackay region remain fiercely divided on whether they support the state’s biggest, most ambitious renewable energy project to go ahead in their backyard.

The announcement from opposition leader David Crisafulli that the LNP would ditch the Pioneer-Burdekin scheme in the Pioneer Valley if it won, and instead consider building several smaller hydro projects, was met with merriment from the likes of Save Eungella campaigners who saw it as a win for their future.

View of the Pioneer Valley, and how it will be changed by the Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project's lower reservoir. AFTER. Picture: Queensland Hydro.

But Mrs Gilbert on Wednesday said she found Mr Crisafulli’s budget reply speech “very disappointing”.

“They (the LNP) haven’t waited for the impact statements that we are waiting for,” Mrs Gilbert said.

“We have got people on the ground, up around that area, working on core drilling, we’re doing the environmental impacts and also the cultural studies.

“So when all this information comes together, then we know exactly what were dealing with.

“So its very short sighted for them to come in before any of that information is presented and to have a look at the project in its full value.”

When asked if her support for the Pioneer-Burdekin project could derail her prospects of being re-elected, Mrs Gilbert replied there was a groundswell of support from both individuals and businesses for the dams to proceed.

“I know there has been a very coordinated campaign (against it), but when you look at the project in the cold light of day, this is a project that is going to support green, cheap energy for the whole of Queensland, which means that there are industries out there that have sat in my office, talked to me about moving their business here into our region,” Mrs Gilbert said.

“Because they want to be close to the green energy project, they want to be able to sell their produce around the world, market it as this was made in the area where there's the largest pumped hydro project in Australia.”

Mrs Gilbert said she hoped voters would think about their future and what value the project brought when deciding at the ballot box.